The Note of Tomorrow
by RandomNumbers523156
Summary: When Ritsu's parents are slaughtered by a monster when he was younger, he was saved by the magical girl, Miriam. Now seeking revenge, he cross dresses to get into the magical girl academy in order to pursue his objective. With Teto and Ruko by his side, the trio sets out on the grand line, learning through challenges about what truly make a magical girl the strong beings they are.
1. The Stage Is Set Up

_**A.N:** This is a collab between me and Mastermind Ritsu, a.k.a. Squiggles. And it's slightly an original too. _

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><p>In ancient scriptures, it's said that downpour derived originally from the heavens from a God's wrath to punish the wicked. You could consider the water droplets his tears of wasted life. It's a dreary downpour of emotion - and a natural occurrence that Ritsu Namine wished never happened. It was around 10 years ago when it happened. It was an average night. The television was on, broadcasting the news about the war. At the time, Ritsu never understood anything about the war. All he knew about it was a bunch of people went away and sometimes never came back. He'd listen to those depressing updates everyday with his mother, ignorant to their words. After all, when you're a child, you're still in that bubble of wonderment. You can't come out until society deems you ready, whether you like it or not.<p>

That day, like he stated before, was like every other typical night. This time, however, his mother was in the kitchen, preparing him kimchi. He loved the foreign soup dearly, as well as his father did, so his mother decided to gift them both with the food.

In fact, he could still recall the nostalgic smell wafting out of the kitchen and into his darkened livingroom. His mouth watered slightly, and he tried to pretend that he wasn't at all excited. It was babyish of him, he thought, to act all bubbly and happy. No. He was a man just like the cool soldier guys in the movies his father brought home from wastelands, and he was going to prove it.

When his mother pulled him into the kitchen, he eagerly gulped down the liquidy substance and listened to his parents converse over things he couldn't quite comprehend yet. They sounded worried, and eventually his mother yanked him up from the seat and carried Ritsu away from the dinner table. He kept asking his mother what was wrong, but she wouldn't answer.

She opened up the back door to the house and told Ritsu to hide in the wilderness surrounding their house. Ritsu whined about it being rainy, but she shoved him out and told him not to come back into the house, no matter what he heard or what happened.

The next few minutes were a blur. Screams, lights, and then silence. He wasn't sure what happened, and to this day he still wasn't quite sure, but what he did know that his house was reduced to debris. And on top of it stood a fairly light headed woman with a giant sword stabbed in the middle of a giant, black creature; its shape was so alien that he barely could distinguish its form - it had tentacles, hands, but it was so alien. A disgusting black ooze filtered out of its wound. Ritsu, now scared with his young mind whirring and racing to understand what happened, screamed. The woman, he remembered to be quite stern looking, had a surprised expression change upon her face.

"A survivor? That's rare." Her words rang out in his ears. She detached the sword from the monster's body and dragged it along side of her as she walked to Ritsu. She gave him a friendly smile. "It's okay. The bad guy is dead now. Are you hurt? I'm a magical girl and I'm here to help… I'm really sorry but I couldn't save your parents."

The rest followed as you would expect. Back up crews emerged from, well, Ritsu couldn't recall that either, and investigated the area, documenting the deaths, and took Ritsu into a private questioning facility to inquire him on his experiences. He was too traumatized to answer any of them, so they let him some time alone, under observation. It took days, but he finally had to face the facts: his family had long passed from this world. It is cliche to consider this, but there's an old saying to this. It's there for one second and gone in an instant. And that instant was the creature.

He never forgave his mistake of not doing something to help his parents. He even considered several times about ending his own life to join them wherever they ended up. But he recalled the brave heroine that rescued him from his almost perilous demise.

"They have to die!" He shouted, in the middle of the room where he was kept under observation, startling the therapist who was looking out him. "All of them! Every last one! Damn them! I'll become a magical girl, whatever it takes! Until then..."

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><p><em>There was once an age in which humanity ruled the planet. The old books talk about an age when humanity claimed to have tamed the widest rvers, the biggest mountains, the deepest seas, even stepping in the farthest moon. However, this time passed when fire from beyond the heavens fell on the land.<em>

_Still, humanity survived in pockets of resistance. One of the most known of them was the city of Liberitas. The demons that preyed on humanity were fought with all the weapons available: the guns of the marching men; the warmachines, beasts of metal created in the forges of the inner city; and the elite soldiers: the magical girls. Although the title is not intimidating at first, the magical girl has a special power – she could bend reality in order to fight monsters. Rules of nature are put on a hold while she taps the elusive source of her powers._

_The oldest registers don't know how humanity gained this power. However, it didn't matter for the 10 million citizens of Liberitas, only that it was an asset and as an asset, it should be used wisely. The pride of the city defenses was the Preparatory Academy of Magical Girls – in fact, it was just known as the Academy. Along with Strategos, the academy for boys who had magical affinity, they defended the city from the beasts._

_The war continued. It wasn't a war against fellow humans, but a war against demons from the Dark Continent. People could either assume that the war would never end and giving themselves to despair, or they could fight and live their lives on. Most of the inhabitants preferred to live according to the second option; the demon's strikes were dealt by the army, the warmachines, the magical girls and the strategists, allowing the average citizen to have a normal life – for a peculiar definition of "normal"._

_Alas, the victories nowadays are more common than they were in the past; many citizens stopped to concern about the demons and monsters, while members from militaristic ranks are starting to fear that humanity has grown complacent._

_Independent of the fears, the show must go on. There are 10 million actors in Liberitas and today three of them started a new chapter of their stories._

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><p>The light grey pigment of the morning sky greeted Ritsu, his adopted sister, Ruko, and their best friend, Teto as they journeyed down the suburban-like downtown area. A flock up pigeons that were gathered together flew up into the stratosphere in a panic, diving over the old-English like apartment buildings. The typical cobblestone roofs and rain weathered clocks that displayed the mid-day time which hung on the side of every so building was a better greeting to them than the alleyways they usually had to dart through.<p>

But today, the scenery wasn't soothing their mood. Right now, they were in a panic to get to their first day of their program, granted the title "magical girl" wasn't something to naturally be proud of. At least to the current cross dressed Ritsu. His now long- flowing scarlet hair that he had spent months growing out just to sneak into this all girl's academy was snared in the wind, as did his long purple skirt. He let out a curse and took his hair, shoving it into his equally purple blouse.

Ruko laughed at his typical grumpy behavior, then stopped once her ebony pigtails gusted into her face. Luckily, Teto's hot pink twin drills never had this issue, so she cackled at the two. Ruko narrowed her heterochromatic red and blue eyes at her.

"Teto, I don't think now's the time for laughter. We have to deliver these important documents to… wherever." Ruko trailed off, trying to remember the name of their desired destination. While she was distracted, Ritsu shoved the briefcase into his sister's arms.

"Ruko, protect this briefcase with your life!" Ritsu said, putting a finger on her face, having to stretch up because of the major height difference.. "Your mother literally died for this!"

"But Mama Macne is alive." Ruko said, scratching the back of her head.

"You know what I mean!" Ritsu cried again.

_"__Ritsu, your left boob is falling down."_ Teto whispered in his ear. It was true. His ridiculously oversized "bra" was sagging over his shoulders. (Granted, it was Ruko's that he had on. It's not like his mother's would fit him with her petite frame.)

"Ah! I thought that I strapped it tightly!" Ritsu said out loud again, earning weird looks from a passing couple.

"Calm down," Teto said, fixing the straps, while Ruko stood in front of him in order to draw away attention. "Here, and done."

They continued walking as if nothing happened, but Teto started to complain. "Serious, Ritsu, why couldn't you simply go to Strategos?"

"And endure six years of hearing the same bullcrap every day? NO WAY! Besides, it's insanely difficult to enter there. Not even uncle could match the sticks...Not that I even wanted to." Ritsu replied, stomping on the ground. Teto made a grimace; Ritsu just had a natural talent. If he kept this up, his disguise would surely be blown.. "You didn't even need to follow me!"

"Okay, I admit I'm a late bloomer, but it's just because my brother didn't have the right connections until now." Teto said, glancing away from him. "Let's stop talking about this."

"Your brother is old enough to be your father." Ruko said, happily swinging the briefcase.

"I said to stop it!" Teto said, taking her hands to her ears.

"Ruko, take care with that briefcase! Our futures are inside it! On second thought, give it to me!" Ritsu said, snatching the briefcase from Ruko's hand, hugging it like it were a teddy bear. Ruko just shrugged and continued walking until they reached the Academy.

Between the rutty town buildings in the downtown area to the skyscrapers and businesses in the metropolis part of Liberitas, the Academy was one of the most extravagant buildings any of them had ever marveled upon. the white walkway that split into a circle met up in front of a gleaming white estate that stretched out upon the finely moved lawn for quite a long distance. The many windows that were stapled into it's walls seemed to greet them happily, granted the majority had their curtains drawn in front of them which seemed to display a message of nonchalant towards the three outsiders. The shade of the giant oak trees shielded them from the heat of the morning sun, and thus it did for the rest of the pathway up to the entry doors.

The giant building that connected the two long halves of the academy stood taller than the rest. This must be the entrance, or the final destination.

"Wow, this is much more incredible than the folder said." Ruko said, taking her cellphone to take a picture. Ritsu was awestruck, as well as Teto.

"Of course." A janitor said from her stand upon the entry stairs. She was dusting off the steps with a broom, the dust catching onto the lower half of her navy blue uniform. Her dark blue braid constantly swung in the way of her lowered face. She wiped the sweat off her head and gazed up at the sun reflected clock, smiling. "Academy is a such a shiny place, I'm proud to keep it shiny."

"Eh, who are you, ma'am?" Ruko asked. The janitor shrugged with her simple smile.

"No one special. Just a janitor that likes her broom."

"Alright," Ritsu said, shoving Ruko off, and taking a look at her name tag, "Alys... can you tell me where's the student services office? I need to deliver these documents!"

"Oh, you read my name tag!" Alys said, blushing in happiness, almost dropping her broom. "So few people pay attention at a lowly janitor like me. Thank you."

"Yeah, whatever. Now, where's the student services?"

"Oh, it's in the main building. You'll find it at the first corner to the right." Alys gestured, moving out of the way quickly.

"Thank you, ma'am!" Ruko thanked her while Ritsu and her walked off at a faster pace. Teto almost blurted "Wait for me!" and followed them.

"I should have told them that classes started two days ago." Alys said, after sighing. "I hope the director can forgive them, they seem nice people."

"We're almost there...I CAN'T HOLD ANYMORE! AHHHHHH!" Ruko said, squealing in the delight at stepping on Academy's ground. She started to skip to the fountain in the middle of the plaza. Ritsu slapped his face, groaning in dismay. However, they couldn't abandon Ruko, so the two followed after the childish teen.

"Look at this water." Ruko said, looking at her reflection in the water of the fountain, with Teto and Ritsu following. She stuck her hands out towards the water. "I want to dip my hands in it."

"If you do that, you might risk a warning." Someone said with a slightly concerned tune. They saw her reflection in the was a rather young girl with short black hair, the pointed ends curling up, and a pink hair clip holding back the left side of her bangs. She wore a simple sleeveless white jacket, short blue jean shorts, and plain black tennis shoes. She didn't really look like what they'd expect of a student to look like. In this academy, nonetheless "Welcome to the Academy! My name is Kitano Kamui! What are your names?"

"My name is Ritsu Namine and I'll be deadliest magical girl that ever walked this land!" Ritsu wasn't even sure what the heck he just said, but he was sure that it sounded cool. He swung his fist upwards and gave a determined look that was actually a plea for help.

"Teto Kasane." Teto bluntly answered.

"I am Ruko Yokune." She extended her hand for a welcome.

"I'm so glad to meet you!" She said. Her bubbly attitude started to bother Ritsu. But her excitement started to die out suddenly when she saw a teal twin pigtailed female gathered with a couple of other girls gesture to her from across the plaza.

"Excuse me, I need to go." And she ran off, just like that. When the trio looked at the pigtailed female, she glared at them and them started talking to Kitano.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Teto said, crossing her arms.

"Who cares?" Ritsu said. "I don't care about the resident queen bees."

And they resumed their walk to the main building. Teto and Ruko were admiring the sights. Ritsu had his eyes turned to the door of the main building. The faster he delivered those documents, the faster he would officially be in the Academy. When he reached the handle of the door, it opened from inside, slamming it against Ritsu's head.

"Ouch!" He said, putting a hand to his head. "Look where you're going!"

"I'm sorry."

"You could have me bleed!" Ritsu continued. "Who the hell do you think I am?"

Then Ritsu felt something grabbing his wrist. "No, I'm making the questions here: Who the hell do you think you are?"

At that moment, Ritsu paid attention to who was his interlocutor: She was a blonde girl that wore the uniform of Academy; her hair was disheveled, but it did nothing to hide her naturally pretty face; her eyes were a tint of light blue, but her fierce expression made Ritsu feel that she could pierce him with his gaze. Ritsu, in fact, blushed when he looked into her eyes.

"Well, um…"

"Did you come to the Academy to be a magical girl?" she asked, in an authoritative tone that made Ritsu gulp. Hesitantly, he nodded. "Oh, really? Let me tell you something!" She let go of him and fingered him on his chest.

"Girl, if you want money, you should be a banker! If you want power, you should be a lawyer! If you want to be famous, you should be an entertainer!" She punched each phrase with a jab of her index finger at his chest; he groaned each time. "But, if you want to be a magical girl, you'll have to give everything and expecting nothing in return!"

"You sound like your nail broke." Ritsu said, sarcastic. Then, the girl slapped him with the back of her hand. "Shit! Why did you do that?"

"The Academy is a pile of golden crap. If you really want to be a magical girl, you'll find a way. Until then…" she walked past him, flipping her hair, "May God help you survive this madhouse."

"What an annoying little…" Ritsu said, while massaging his wrist.

"Hey, Ritsu, is everything alright?" Ruko asked, followed by Teto. "We saw you discussing with a girl. I have the feeling she might be a senior."

"Ignore her. At least, she thinks I'm a girl - this works!"

"Yep, you look good in girl's clothes." Ruko innocently commented, earning a glare from him.

They finally entered in the building and saw the Academy's student services office. The lady acting as the secretary was lazily playing a game of "Snake" in her smartphone, while there was a pile of papers waiting to be stamped down. Her light purple feather - like hair piece was grazing against a file cabinet. She looked young enough to be a student at this school.

"Good morning," Ritsu said, rudely putting the briefcase on her desk. "We're here to enroll in this year's freshmen class. Here's the papers, the recommendations, all that bureaucratic crap."

The secretary looked at the open briefcase, and then resumed to play on her smartphone.

"Hell, aren't you going to pay attention to us?" Ritsu thundered.

"Classes started two days ago." She said in a disinterested tone. "Better luck next year."

"WHAT?!" The three of them blurted at the same time.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe we had to call Uncle Cubi." Ritsu said, fuming. "And this is all your fault."<p>

"Ritsu, it's _our_ fault. We just missed the right day. Even your mom!" Teto said. "But it doesn't matter: we're in now! And we're just two days behind, so it won't be a problem catching up. Now, let's go, we'll have an Introduction to Magic class in ten minutes."

"Oh!" Ruko said, her eyes gleaming. She spotted a certain machine located in the supposed teachers lounge and jumped into the room.

"There is a coffee machine here!" She said, hugging the machine.

Teto just rolled her eyes and checked again the syllabus of the different classes. Ritsu, on the other hand, looked at the ceiling and smirked.

_"__Now, time has come! My revenge shall be glorious!"_

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><p><strong>A.N.:<strong> This was the first chapter of what seems is going to be an entire series. Also, this is going to be half-serious, half-non-serious parody/non-parody of the magical girl anime. Edit: Corrected small inconsistencies.


	2. Day of Discoveries

Ritsu, Ruko and Teto had no difficulty to find the classroom, thanks to the secretary guiding them. Ruko commented that finally something good happened to them, while Ritsu commented that if not getting late to the class was the best thing that could happen to them, it meant that they had hit rock-bottom already in the first day. The school also gave presents, like a rather average bag and a school tablet, in order to make class notes and general multipurpose use. Their uniforms had to wait until later.

Upon arriving there, they saw that the class looked like a standard high school class they used to go. The girls in the class were silent while the professor explained the class contents.

"Excuse me, professor Avanna." The secretary said, calling the teacher. "But we have three new students here."

"Oh, thanks, Flower." The teacher, apparently named Avanna, said. She looked foreign in appearance, but looked rather young to be teaching. "It's a good that you, at least, managed to don't be late to today's class. Take a seat, and pay attention to my instructions."

"Eh, aren't you going to introduce us?" Ruko asked, lifting a finger. Ritsu leaned into the classroom door to observe all the female students and teacher; first, he disliked her medium length black hairstyle, it was tedious; then, he disliked the mutual uniform they wore, knowing that soon he would be forced to dress in the same style. It was a standard school uniform. A white blouse with a tie underneath the collar with a coat of arms patch stitched onto the front (An angel holding a bow. Classy), set with a plaid skirt that came to the knees and knee high socks and black Mary Janes. Ritsu and Teto both looked at each other and knew that they both shared distaste for it.

"What? Do you think I am Linako?" Avanna said, putting her hands on her hips. "I said to take a seat." The trio obediently occupied three empty chairs.

"Alright, new students, it is at least fair to introduce myself. My name is Avanna and in my class we have a relation of mutual respect. Whenever I am talking you don't talk; whenever I'm writing in the blackboard, you are allowed to talk, as long as it's not too loud, but I prefer that you're using your school tablets to write the topics down." Then, she proceeded to start writing on the blackboard. 'Blackboard' was a kind of misnomer - the board was made of a translucent material, and Avanna wrote the contents on it. The class, understanding her words, start to talk to each other.

"Ruko, gather informations!" Ritsu elbowed her. She was startled, but she asked the girl who was next to her, sitting on the seat next to the window. She had silver hair, but she had a distant expression while looking through the window. Her red eyes glanced up at the trio lazily.

"Hey, my name is Ruko." She said. "What's your name?"

"Haku."

"Haku, we kind of missed the first two days, so can you help us a bit?" She smiled.

"You were lucky that you stumbled upon me, rather than anyone else."

"Why?"

"Are you seeing the girls from the front row?" Haku said, the volume of her voice turning into a whisper; Ruko nodded. "There are five columns, you can ignore the girls in the even columns; you need to be careful with the three girls in the uneven columns. At the left, the one teal-haired, she is Miku Hatsune - she thinks she is the princess of the Academy; at the center, we have Miki Furukawa - she is the military brat and be careful with her right arm; and at the right, Kokone Kakariko - don't let that smile fool you. It's been only two days, but they're already in a war for I don't know what."

"Oh, sounds...useful information…" Ruko said, glancing aside. "What about you?"

"I'm a senior, Ruko, but I flunked."

"Oh."

"Now, it's my last chance here. I should have listened Neru and try to find another career, but that'd mean death or life for my mother." She placed hands on her face. "But, ok, let's go through another year in this hell. Third time is the charm, they say." She balled her fists in the desk. "This time, I'll show them!"

"Alright, class." Avanna said, turning around. "I'll spare no more than five minutes to recap the first class."

"Oh, come on!" A student said, she was blonde and had a bow on her head. Ritsu found her similar to that Kitano girl from the way she had a barrette in her hair and the way her blonde locks curled out around her neck. Sisters, perhaps? "Why do we need to wait for the losers who can't get to the finish line?"

"Because there is _no _finish line!" Avanna snapped, surprising almost everyone in class. "In the battlefield, you cannot leave anyone behind, not even the weakest links! Send them to the martial court, expel them, but _never_ leave anyone behind! Was I clear, Rin Kagamine?"

"Yes, ma'am!" the blonde girl named Rin replied, with terror in her eyes.

"Excellent. Our new students missed the first classes and to ensure our education is evenly distributed I'll make a small recap of those classes." She sighed at first and then started. "As you may have learned in high school, we divide the current history of mankind in two eras: before the Heaven Fire and after the Heaven Fire. Historians believe that the Heaven Fire was what caused the demise of the First Human Civilization, and, from the scraps, a new Human Civilization was born, smaller but still capable, however with dangerous enemies - but this is Kiyoteru's class. And, in this new civilization, we discovered that there are humans who are capable of literally bend the rules of nature at their will - we name this power as magic, based on the ancient oral legends of the First Civilization; which is fitting since all available records on the First Civilization agree that magic was nonexistent and anyone claiming to have such powers were regarded as a charlatan by any serious person." At that moment, Teto raised her hand. "Name and question?" Avanna asked.

"Teto Kasane." She lowered her hand and asked: "There is something that always bothered me and I wanted to hear the answer from an authority: why is there so little information on the First Civilization?"

"That's a good question." She snapped her fingers. "Most people think that the old world is shrouded in mystery, the registers are protected as if they were secret of state, but the truth is that they're widely available to the public in libraries and official Cloudnet pages. One thing the register tell is that there was an attempt to glean all human knowledge into a great virtual network, called the Internet - which can be considered an ancient precursor to our Cloudnet. However, the Heaven Fire destroyed the internet, along with all its knowledge; we have to rely on old books and caches of data that we find in archaeological expeditions. One can wonder how much knowledge there is hidden in the Dark Continent."

Satisfied, Teto nodded. Taking advantage of the streak of questions, Ritsu elbowed Ruko and she lifted her hand to ask, "I am Ruko Yokune and I also wanted to ask a question: why are there more magical girls than boys?"

"It's not in the scope of today's class, but I'll answer nonetheless: it's cost-effectiveness. Scientists are still studying the reason why the maturation of magical arts in women is at least three times faster than in men; the most accepted theory is the genetic theory, but we will study deeply this and other theories in the future. However, it doesn't really matter, as long as magic works to protect our lifestyle. During this era, humanity learned on how to use this...asset in its favor, even if it cost many lives in the past. However, one thing must be clear: we don't fully understand magic yet - it is a wild thing that runs through our veins, so take care."

"The cucumbers are fresh. The onion is at rest." A girl with light pink hair said. The girl herself had big magenta eyes that didn't even seem to blink.

"IA, not now." The woman accompanying said. She had purple hair in a pair of even pigtails and didn't wear an uniform.

"Our special student IA is an example of how magic can be tricky. In the roulette of genetics, she earned the power of clairvoyance. We can never know when exactly she is imagining things or when she is actually seeing the future. Her caretaker, Yukari Yuzuki is not a student, so respect her."

"Oh, hello, my friends." IA turned around and greeted the class. The others waved awkwardly, while Ruko waved effusively.

"When are we going to see the flashy stuff?" Ritsu asked, sounding impatient. "All the powers, all the demon-killing stuff?"

"Everything at its time. What is your name?" Avanna asked, going to his seat.

"Ritsu. Ritsu Namine." He said.

"Okay, Ms. Namine." She said, placing her hands on his desk and looking right into his eyes. "Let me tell you something: I don't know what your affinities with magic are, but there will be no 'flashy stuff' until you have a clear understanding of what you think magic is and why it's so unstable." Then, she returned to the blackboard, saying, "Patience is the virtue of the warrior, so you'd better be getting some of it."

Avanna continued writing on the blackboard, while Ritsu's frown deepened. He had waited ten years and if he knew that learning magical arts would take a while, perhaps Strategos should be an option. _No_, he thought and shook his head; he wanted to kill demons and girl clothes were a mere nuisance compared to entering and enduring six years of classes in Strategos - plus he had a backer, and he wouldn't lose the opportunity. He took a look at the class again: those girls were his rivals, so they had to recognize his ambitions or stand in his way.

However, when he took a second look, he noticed that the three girls from the first row were looking at him with disdain.

* * *

><p>Avanna's class continued without major incidents; she continued explaining on the theories about the nature of magic and how they could be exploited for daily uses and military uses. This bored Ritsu, but he didn't fall asleep, like Ruko (in the end, she loved coffee for a reason); her plea that a magical girl must breath magic fell on deaf ears. The class, however, did have a free demonstration of Avanna's power when Rin insisted in talking while Avanna was explaining the topics, so she just summoned gusts of wind that undid her bow. The warning was taken heed and no one committed any infraction.<p>

When the class ended, it was already was time for lunch. Avanna guided the class towards the giant space that Ritsu was surprised was even labeled 'cafeteria.' His heels clicked onto the waxed brown tile floor as he gazed up to the very high white ceiling. The height difference between it and him made him dizzy. He glanced down and hurried over with Teto and Ruko to the cafeteria line.

The food looked rather delicious. Higher quality than Mama Macne's food, if you're looking for a comparison. The pink haired chef behind the display helped place some of the special soup into student's trays. When she saw the trio approach, she smiled warmly at them.

"Ah, I haven't seen you three since opening day. You must be new!" She pointed out. "I'm Chika, the cook, and I hope you enjoy the desserts!" She gestured over to the desert isle, and layouts of chocolate covered pastries lay out before them. Ruko looked absolutely delighted, as well as Ritsu and Teto.

"Thank you, miss!" Teto thanked Chika. The short pink haired woman chuckled and began serving the weird IA girl from earlier.

"No need to thank me, I'm just the cook!" Ritsu took more than one desert, registered his student ID number in at the checkout slot, and then met up with Ruko and Teto as they gazed out into the vast sea of students and lunch tables.

"Where are we supposed to fucking sit?" Ritsu asked them. Teto looked around, then noticed how tall Ruko was.

"Ruko, can you find us a spot? I can't see!" Teto complained. Ruko then spotted an open lunch table by the large windows, sun shining down lightly on the plastic white seats. Ruko pointed, and Teto smiled. "I knew you could do it! Let's hurry over there before someone takes them."

Teto didn't have to say those words to get Ritsu moving. As the gang pardoned their way through the passing juniors and seniors, Ritsu noticed the red headed ahoge girl that glared at them earlier. He glared back, showing that he wasn't afraid, and looked away.

They continued walking until they passed through that other girl with brown hair. She seemed to be talking with others, and there was a feeling that she was forcing her laughter, because no one else was smiling.

"Look at that shit-eating grin." Teto whispered. But then, the were next to a free table. Ruko was the first to sit down at the table. She pushed the food away and pulled out a metal canister. Teto was befuddled.

"Where did you get that?" She asked her. Ruko opened up the lid and drank greedily. Then, wiping her coffee mustache away, she replied,

"In my pocket." And that was the end of that conversation. They began eating in silence, thinking over today's events carefully. Ritsu rested his head upon his hand, slumped over in his seat, and glanced out the window. He viewed that down below them were two girls showing off their magical powers to each other. A blonde female with a really long braid shot a pink spark out of her head and transformed it into a small hand gun. Her long brunette friend then shot out a blue spark which turned itself into a long staff, and they both admired each other's weaponry. Ritsu snorted.

"My weapon is certainly going to be much better." He muttered out loud. Teto blinked.

"What does weaponry have to do with that one girl?" She asked. Ritsu raised his head up.

"What?" Then he realized. That Kitano girl from earlier was hurrying towards them with her tray. Ritsu cursed his luck and sat up semi-straight, fixing his bra. The three really didn't expect any polite people here, after the explanation brought to them by Haku. Kitano slowed down and nervously approached Teto, somehow losing her enthusiasm.

"Hello, sorry for bugging you, but can I sit with you?" She asked. Teto glanced over at Ritsu, and then to Ruko, and then back to Kitano. It probably wouldn't hurt.

"Sure, that would be okay with us." Teto scooted over for Kitano to sit. The smaller girl smiled childishly and jumped into the seat, slamming down her tray. Ritsu kept his eyes on her.

"I really admired you guys in the classroom today! No one really asked the teacher any questions because I'm sure they don't care, but I do." Kitano told them. Ruko smiled at her.

"Welcome." Kitano was about to say something else, but the blue haired female from earlier marched over and grabbed her arm, pulling her out of her seat.

"Kitano, what did I say about associating with the losers?!" She yelled at her. Kitano's honey eyes squinted in shame, and she nervously smiled and picked up her tray, going off to the female's table.

"Look, Miku!" the girl with the bow, Rin Kagamine, said, pointing a finger, "That girl made me look bad in front of teacher Avanna!"

"You want some, you butterfaced shit knob?!" Ritsu said, picking an orange, as if ready to throw at her. But before he could do anything, Miku pointed her hand like a gun at her; a strange green energy surrounded it and she shot, right at Ritsu's forehead. He grunted and took a hand to his forehead, which was still burning with the weird, green fire - whatever it was. Then, it started to spread through his arm and when he tried to rub off with his other arm, going through it as well; soon, most of his body had that weird, stinging green fire. He already fell to the floor, rolling around, but the thing that concerned him most was that it might could his clothes and then reveal his disguise. However, everything ended when Ruko threw a bucket of water on him.

"Today you learned three lessons: Lesson #1: I am Miku Hatsune and thus I am better than you. Lesson #2: Live with it." The girl then turned around to face the other three. "And Lesson #3: don't think for a minute about messing with me or my idiotic clique." And she turned promptly on foot and stormed off. Ritsu snapped his fork in his hands, fuming.

"Today was kinda crazy, huh? I mean, we had to get Uncle to call to not get kicked out, something called the Internet once existed, and Ritsu got burned." Ruko summed up.

"Today is not even over, dammit!" Ritsu cried.

* * *

><p>After the lunch, Ritsu was actually hyped for the next class: 'Goethic Arts'. Not even the fact that he was still wet and burned, not to mention being a target of Miku's glare made his hype diminish. This class dealt with the study of demons and apparitions; the primary enemy of magical girls. Ritsu had learned everything a civilian was allowed to. He always watched those cheesy movies about magical girls defeating demons through flashy powers and teamwork, he read all books on demons from the library, he even used demon drawings as target practice.<p>

So, his frustration was evident when it was announced that professor Kiyoteru Hiyama couldn't attend the class due to quarantine. Apparently, professor Kiyoteru was also an important demonologist as well, and he routinely was involved in field study of demons - it was standard procedure to keep any person in field study in a small quarantine and, that day, he had been called in the dawn. His work, however, finished at noon, so the quarantine wouldn't allow him to deliver the class. Thus, the students were dispensed early.

Ritsu didn't want to stay at the Academy for too long; classes off were still classes off even in a military-themed place like that. The trio arrived at the Yokune household, Ruko's natural home, Ritsu's adoptive home, and Teto's place to crash in. Ritsu rudely dropped his bags on the couch, and they slipped and fell to the floor, and he went straight for his room.

"Hi, mom!" Ruko said. A small, poofy green haired woman that looked as young as they did ran up to them in a white apron, a pleasant smell originating from the kitchen. She had a book in her hand with the title _Cooking For Dummies_.

"Good day, Ms. Macne." Teto said politely, giving her a smile.

"Oh, early so soon?" The woman chirped, sitting down a plate of snacks. "How was your first day? Has Ritsu's disguise been discovered?"

"Don't worry about it," Ruko said, "Actually, we missed the first two days of class."

"Oh, no." She placed a hand on her mouth. Her light green eyes moved quickly around the room, averting her sight upon the teens. "I apologize! I've been so busy I didn't notice!"

"Ritsu had to call uncle Cubi and he fixed it for us, so don't worry." She said, pouring down coffee on her personal mug.

"Oh, it is so great to have him sponsoring you three." Macne smiled. "Tell me, it's been a while since I went to Academy. In my times, they had a strict policy that every girl needed to stay at the dorms, but I heard they removed this policy a couple of years ago. But, it's natural that the first weeks feel like high school."

"Yeah, if we wanted to stay in the dorms, we'd need to fill in a lot of papers and Ritsu said he had enough."

"He needs to work on his patience."

When saying that, the door opened again.

"Daddy!" Ruko said, running to the man and hugging him. The man took off his black army cap to reveal his blond locks sticking midways up in the air, with one long bang hanging down in between his crimson eyes. He placed a kiss on Ruko's head, and she smiled with glee.

"Hio, it's so good to see you back." Macne ran up to her husband and placed a small kiss on his cheek. Granted she was half his size so he had to bend down just for her.

"Today I had a really bad day at the work. A monkey dropped milk on my table and I had to clean it up with that lavender bleach, because they fired the cleaning maid yesterday and didn't replace her. Then I discovered that I'm allergic to that bleach brand, then I went to the infirmary, where the nurse tried to restore my blood; she accidentally messed my levels of salt in the blood, then I passed out; when I woke up I was in the hospital; the doctor said that I was going to be okay, but they accidentally swapped my health summary, so I ended up donating a kidney. So I went to the pharmacy to buy the post-operation remedies."

"A monkey…?" Macne went and picked the bag he was holding. "Oh, you're just a barrister. Those things shouldn't happen to you."

"That's what I keep telling myself in the way back home." He sat down and asked Ruko. "Hon, be a good girl pick me up a sarsaparilla bottle." Ruko nodded.

"A monkey…?" Teto blurted.

Hio wanted to hear anything else. When Ruko brought his bottle of sarsaparilla, he just wanted to relax. Sipping the liquid made him happy, while he watched the TV. He picked up the controller and turned it on.

"Greetings, my fellow human!"

"Ah, Cubi, what are you doing in my TV? No, why are you invading my privacy _again_?" The man in the screen smiled in a smug way, but his smile rubbed off as stupid to Hio. His black jacket hood was pulled over his hair, so you could only see one piece of black hair hanging down in his face that curved rightwards, like Hio's. The way he wore those black shades over his eyes made Hio want to punch him.

"You have no chance to change your channel, take your time."

"Stop talking in those old memes! Your hobby is _annoying_!"

"Memes. The DNA of soul." He continued, while Hio grunted. "I gained knowledge of your... monkey business." Hio grunted again. "But, aren't you proud that your daughters are in the Academy?"

"Oh, I even forgot it!" He facepalmend and then he raised his voice. "Ruko, Ritsu, Daddy is proud of you!" Then, he grunted and took a sip of his sarsaparrilla. "Oh, whom I'm deceiving. Ruko is in a dangerous place and Ritsu is dead set on killing demons, and crossdressing will be the least of his problems. I can't believe I agreed to that." Then he glared at the man in the screen. "And I can't believe you convinced him to go on with it!"

"Look, m8…"

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Ah, forget it!" He almost threw the bottle in the floor.

"As I was saying, Academy only accepts women. But if I manage to get my sponsored crossdresser to graduate, I'll be able to start a new niche and rub it on those fancy pansies from Strategos. My victory. Shaken, not stirred." Hio knew that Cubi was one of the biggest shareholders of the Academy, but he didn't know that he was so dead set on invading the rival school's turf. (Granted, they weren't even rivals, they dealt with different people - different products, if it were to use a corporative jargon.)

"If something happens to Ruko or Ritsu, I'm going to get your head, you...meme man!" Hio pointed to the screen. "I know what happened to Macne! I may have done nothing right in my life but I'll be sure as hell to give Ruko and Ritsu a good life!"

"Relax, buddy, they will be alright." He smiled, making the screen flash. Hio thought again of his daughter Ruko and his adoptive son, Ritsu. They weren't going to have him forever, but as long as they had each other, they can have a better chance.

"You better swear on it, Cubi. My daughters are the most important thing to me besides Nana!" He jabbed his finger onto the screen, suddenly realizing that he got up out of his seat. Cubi backed up and threw up his hands in defense.

"Yes, I promise! Trust me, the only thing that'll be damaged in the aftermath is Strategos." Cubi looked away for a minute, then turned back to his brother. "I have to depart for now, but remember. We am legion. We do not forgive, and we do not forget. Expect us." And with a wink, he disappeared and Hio's program came back on.

Hio rolled his eyes and picked up his sarsaparrilla, then realized.

"This isn't my sarsaparrilla! This is-"

* * *

><p><strong>A.N.<strong> And we finish here. Originally, this was going to be a much longer chapter, involving more infodump, so we had to cut out Kiyoteru's class; infodumping needs to be regulated but I hope we have made it enjoyable, because there is a lot of worldbuilding to be done. I hope you have liked!


	3. The Power Of Three (Plus One)

The new day started as usual; breakfast, walking to the Academy and then going to their seats.

However, this time Ritsu, Ruko and Teto wore the uniforms. Ruko seemed commented that the uniform made her cute, Teto was indifferent, while Ritsu discretely descended into a mental rage. If Ritsu hated the usual uniform, he hated even more the training uniform (let's say Ritsu was lucky that his body shape was rather feminine for a boy, but this didn't evade comments on how he, better, she was too thin).

It started with Training Schedules, nicknamed as "Physical Education", due to its theoretical semblance with the high school class; but, in truth, it was much more complex than a PE high school class. Training routines were going to be more frequent after the first week. A magical girl needed to be at the peak of her fitness, they said; which made sense, since a magical girl was an elite soldier and, as a soldier, it needed to pass through the same routine as any normal soldier. Granted, there were personal training schedules for each girl, in order to extract the best possible of their abilities, activities like running ten laps through the Academy, cardio exercises, weight lifting and the standard gymnastics were obligatory for all girls.

And this angered Ritsu. He always hated physical education. The only thing that made him pass through all the classes was the prospect of killing demons in the future. There he was, running laps with his classmates; he didn't even pay attention at the female bodies - even though he was interested in women rather than men, he wouldn't let petty things like romance to blew up his disguise, so he just ignored them - they were their equals, even if Ritsu thought he was the only one with a true reason to join Academy.

The morning wind blew against his face. He closed his eyes while the professor told them to speed up the pace. The instructor was named Mona Miranai; she was a redheaded, just like Ritsu, and she had an annoying habit of talking out loud. Ritsu did as she said and pressed on; he looked to his side and saw that Miki girl attempting to slam her right arm (which looked like a prosthesis, due to its lines) at Miku, but she blocked it slamming at it with arm (which she quickly covered with that weird green fire). Kokone put a foot in front of a blonde girl whom Ritsu didn't care and thus made her fall, and also making all girls fall down in line. That Kokone girl laughed (but not too loud to not call the instructor's attention) and she sped up to catch up with Miki and Miku.

Ritsu decided to step up to the challenge: jumping over the fallen girls as if they were hurdles. He accelerated his steps and managed to run past through the three girls. A few more steps in full throttle, he managed pass the instructor. At that moment, Ritsu felt nothing but the wind on his face and his feet stepping on the floor. Yes, he was winning and allowed himself to smile. He was going to become a magical girl!

Then a sharp pain on the side of his stomach erupted out of nowhere. He stopped running and fell to the ground, feeling cramps all around himself. He kneeled while he saw the others passing through him.

"Weak." Miki said, glancing at him.

"A loser." Miku said.

"The school needed a clown anyway." Kokone said.

The other girls also passed through him. Ruko and Teto glanced at him and Ritsu thought of cursing them for not helping him; but he quickly learned the reason why.

"Ritsu, why did you strain yourself?" The instructor said, slowly approaching him.

"I want to be the best student of this place!" Without restraints in his mouth, he spat, almost as if offended, granted the pain of the cramps didn't do anything to improve his mood. "And none of those fools will stand in the way between me and the finishing line!"

"Ritsu," Mona replied, trying to not lose her patience with him, "There is no finishing line! Academy exists to protect humanity and we train for this reason solely and we will fail this objective if we let ourselves to give into petty grudges."

"Heh...Petty grudges?" He said, after getting up. "This is what those bitches are doing everyday."

"Ritsu, first watch your language!" She said, loud. " Second, I'm not sending you to the director because I know exactly what you're referring to!" Mona said, crossing her arms. "Every year it's the same thing, but we work to solve it! Watch your words, a professor is an authority! Now keep up with the others!"

Ritsu continued running, this time he was careful to not strain himself. But still, his enthusiasm for Academy was bleeding and dying a slow death.

* * *

><p>After Physical Education, they had a history class. It was about the First Civilization, so no one paid attention. Ritsu slept through that class - only Ruko paid attention because no one told her to not do it.<p>

"They think I'm a joke!" Ritsu said, angrily cutting the beef on his plate. "A joke!"

"Ritsu, you shouldn't listen to what they say." Teto said, toying with a broccoli on her plate. Then, she added in a whisper, "You'd better be under their radar, you know?"

"When I graduate with honors from Academy, they can eat my dust!" He said, putting the piece of meat on his mouth. "I think I'll flash them in the day of graduation." He added, in a whisper, "This is a man's junk, something you'll never get!"

"I have to admit that it would be...extreme." Ruko said, drinking her coffee.

"I need to find a way to show how much I despise those little bitches!" Ritsu said, repeating the process and almost cutting the plate.

"C'mon, they can't be that bad, as people." Ruko said.

* * *

><p>"Miki, can I see my sister now?" The strawberry blonde haired girl, known as Anon, said. Miki just glared at her. She chirped and said, "Okay, later!" And she hastily ate her food.<p>

"We are waiting your orders, Miki." The girl with purple hair and a beret, Uta, said. She seemed to be brushing something on her lap. On a closer inspection, it was a portable rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

"At ease." Miki said. Miki didn't sound like a young girl; she sounded like a military commander. Her family had a long tradition in the military. Discipline, honor and, above all, esteem for power. Thus, Miki was someone who craved for power.

"Oh, please, it's not like this is serious." The brown-haired girl, Anri Rune, said. When, she said that, Miki grabbed her by the arm, with her prosthesis.

"Listen here, soldier." Miki said, her glare piercing through poor Anri's soul. "You are not allowed to say the Academy isn't serious. This is a preparation, not only to fight the enemies of mankind, but also the vain fights of life." She then forcefully turned her to the tables where her rivals were sat down, Miku and Kokone. "They aren't magical girls, and they won't be."

The grip on Anri's arm tightened and there was a cracking sound. "They just want a position."

The grip tightened, and Anri suppressed a scream. "Now are you going to be like them?" Anri slowly shook her head, with small tears running on the corner of her eyes that she prayed that Miki didn't notice.

"Good."

She let go of Anri Rune; feeling the pain coming from her left arm. "Permission to go the infirmary."

Miki didn't reply at the first moment. But, before she could say anything, a girl said her, "Let her go, Miki. Wounded soldiers are no good in the battlefield." It was Mako Nagone. She sharpened her kunais while eating her noodles. In one hand, she held the sharpener and brushed the blade. In the other, she held her chopsticks. Miki glared at her, and then looked at Anri. Slowly, she nodded and Anri dashed to the infirmary to see the nurse; hopefully, one curative spell would be enough.

"Mako don't push your luck." Miki seethed. "You are not weak, so this is the only reason I tolerate you on my side."

"You broke that girl's arm. You gave me a beatdown on the first day we met." Mako said, when she saw Miki glaring at her. "But this is why I follow you. You are a no-nonsense person, different from those vapid chicks." Miki stopped glaring directly at her; it seemed flattery worked a little. "But, what this obsession with power?"

"There is only one thing that matters in the world: power!" She slammed her prosthetic arm on the table, making a gash on the table, which attracted other people's attention - only Miku and Kokone didn't pretend to not pay attention (that, and that trio of idiots was too busy trying to kill a cockroach). "Power to decide the fate of one person, a group, an entire civilization! And that power will be mine! Because power is the only thing I learned from my parents, and that anything..." she stopped to look at her artificial arm; the palm of her hand moved, while she looked with a forlorn look, definitely different from her usual glare, "...anything is worthy that power." Then the palm closed into a fist.

* * *

><p>"Ignore her, it's just ahoge queen making a scene." Kokone said, her smile was so sickeningly sweet that it could only be fake.<p>

"Whatever you say, Kokone." The blonde girl sitting next to her said. Her name was SeeU.

"Now, be a good little kitty and go pick some wine for me." Kokone said, stroking SeeU's long hair.

"But, we are forbidden from drinking alcohol, and the only place it's available it's outside the school."

"Then go buy it for me." Kokone smiled. Then, she continued smiled, while her eyebrows arched, "Or do you want me to alert the director that your permission in our city is still provisional?"

"No!" Seeu gulped. SeeU was a foreign to Liberitas; she wasn't the only foreign in the Academy, however she was the only one whose documents weren't complete due to red tape, and yet she was admitted in Academy. The problem was that her enrollment was used with the provisional documents and now she was trying to resolve her situation, discreetly, because any unwanted attention could be bad for her. Resigned to the blackmail, she got up and did her bidding.

"It's so amazing that you care so much about SeeU!" A girl sitting on her other side said; her name was Tohoku Zunko.

"I need to take care of my people, Zunko." She said, forcing a smile on herself.

"Heh, 'take care'." A blonde girl said, throwing a brussel sprout at Zunko's plate. "You don't want to burn yourself."

"Kanon, would you be silent, please?" Kokone replied, "I know that you got separated from your sister. And I promise that you'll be reunited. Unless you want to deal with Miki personally." At the mention of her, Kanon frowned.

"It's better you keep your word." Kanon said, continuing eating her food. "I can't even stay in the same dorm as her, because she's with that obsessive-compulsive violent freak!"

"People like her will end up in a cycle of self-destruction and dragging everyone else in her path into a vortex of death."

"But, we need to stop her from doing that!" Zunko said.

"Actually, no." Kokone happily patted her head. "Look, my dear Zunko. When I was a young kid, we had a small, cheap television, and the only channel that they had was the public channel and it sucked, they only showed cheap, old documentaries from the First Civilization; but I liked it, because they showed that our world used to be much better. And then, one day they showed a documentary about the great animals from the savannah. They said that the lion was the most majestic creature from the savannah, the king of the animal kingdom; they hunted the prey with grace and poise. But the truth is that only female lions hunted, the males were just there to rule the pack and act like dicks they were. Isn't it just like us? Magical girls being sent to fight demons while men get to stay plotting in their armchairs. You follow me, Zunko?"

"Um...yeah."

"Good. But this isn't the most interesting thing. See, the documentary also showed another interesting animal: the vulture. The vulture flew majestically in the old skies, and they ate everything the lion hunted. Since the lions couldn't eat all the prey, they had to give it up and look to another prey after they were hungry again - the same routine: hunt, eat and give up. But the vulture wasn't like that; he just ate everything the lions had to give up. They had to do nothing to earn their lot, they just let the others do their work for them, they can eat anything, and this is the reason why they continue to fly on our skies: the vulture is the true king of the animals." She then looked at her. "And that's the reason why we must be like the vulture: let those idiots kill themselves doing their job and then we take their rewards and feast on their corpses. That's the way of the vulture. The vulture...is...never...poor!" Kokone said, though the last phrase was said in a different tone, more...angry; her eyes were twitching as well and her smile turned into something that seemed that she just ate a lemon.

The girl sitting besides Zunko, a blue-haired girl named Aiko, picked up her notebook and wrote something, smirking.

"Having fun?" Kokone asked her.

"Yes, my liege!" Aiko bowed, even sat down. "You know how I appreciate you." Kokone laughed and resumed eating.

Meanwhile, the cockroach that Ritsu, Teto and Ruko were attempting to kill started to fly right at Ruko's direction, so she panicked and ran away.

* * *

><p>"Yes, suffer, you idiots!" Rin said, shaking her fist on the air.<p>

"Rin, less." Miku said. "Let the lowly one have their fun." She filed her nails, while a girl fanned her, with a submissive attitude. Rin's shoulders drooped, but nonetheless obeyed the orders from her superior.

Kitano skipped up to the teal haired girl with a goofy smile."Hey, Miku!" She chirped.

Miku rolled her eyes. "What is it now, Kitano? Are you forgetting your earlier mistake by talking to the lower existances?"

"N-No.. I came to apologize!" She brightened up. Miku rested her head upon her arm. Rin backed up, knowing what would come next. Perhaps Miku would throw her chair at the stupid girl.

"Apologize?"

"Well, it's just that the new students look really cool, and I thought that they would probably like to hang out with us, y'know!"

"Kitano, Kitano," Miku shook her head, "Look at those new students: They arrived late, they make a scene, and not to mention that girl with red hair is just an uncouth thug. Mizki, the grapes."

"But they're new, and I feel like we shouldn't discriminate people…" She trailed off.

She said to the girl fanning her; Mizki closed her fan and picked up the grapes from the tray. "Peeled." She then started to peel them and feed on Miku's mouth. "Kitano, if there is something you need to know is that people are not equal." She said, while masticating the grapes. "Look at Academy: girls from all over the city want to enter here, but only a handful are selected through analysis of CV, recommendations and magical affinity tests. The truth is that they want to choose the superior ones, the elite. And yet, there is still too much girls in this elite, so there is an elite of the elite - this is where I am."

"The grapes ended." Mizki said.

"Alright, continue fanning. As I was saying, Academy needs its own doormats; that trio is the perfect candidate for it. Then, we have ahoge queen, who is a violent thug, and two-face, who is a peasant. They have a term for this, noblesse oblige, the duty of the elite. In this game of life that binds us all, puppeting us with invisible strings, let us gaze the spectacle."

"But…" Kitano said. "Even if some people come from a horrible home life or grew up under those circumstances, that doesn't mean we have to abide by them. Maybe people came here to change for the greater good, like them. We shouldn't degrade people because they're weak. Because if you think about it.. aren't we all weak?"

"Weak? Ring Suzune, please." Miku ordered, and the blue-haired girl that sat down next to her slapped Kitano across her head. "You didn't listen to a word of what I said." Miku continued, while Kitano yelped in pain. "There are weak people and strong people in the game of life. The fate of a player is decided by pure chance, pure fickleness. And, I am not weak, because I was born into a strong family; know your place, Kitano. I gave you an opportunity, I hope you don't waste it."

Kitano didn't have anything to say after that. She held back a stifled sob and ran away from the table.

"She will return. They always do." Miku said.

"Yeah, if she knows what is better!" Rin added. Meanwhile, they saw Ruko running away from the cockroach, while Ritsu picked up a tray and started to slam the air, trying to hit the insect.

"Next class will be Magical Affinities." Miku said. "Keep an eye on the three stooges."

* * *

><p>Haku was alien to all the commotion surrounding her and ate her meal silently. She also preferred to not talk to anyone, since her original classmates were already far away from her. She never finished in due time because she just didn't have affinity with any kind of magic powers. In the first attempt, it was because she actually flunked in theoretical classes and she had unsatisfactory performance in practical classes. In the second, she couldn't complete the year because she had to take care of her sick mother, after her father passed away. Her grades weren't good that year as well.<p>

Now, this was the third attempt - even though a lot of people she knew told her to only get the diploma to have a great job, Haku was also set on becoming a magical girl. She just hoped that this wouldn't become her downfall, because she already used a lot of her family's wealth to stay in there - entering was already a miracle, but it was much easier than staying. In fact, one of the harshest criticism to her performance was that she wasn't fit to be a magical girl, that she should get her diploma and get out of there. But, even that looked difficult.

For this reason, Haku sat down alone. The cliques even ignored her - there was no hate, only indifference, which was, sometimes worse than hate. While she rambled in her thoughts, she saw IA and her guardian, Yukari, on the other side of the table.

IA didn't sit down with the others because Yukari didn't allow her. Haku thought that the cliques didn't harass her because she was too weird for them or because she had a caretaker. Yukari seemed to be a veteran magical girl; either way, they didn't push their luck around her.

"You are Haku Yowane, by any chance?" Yukari said, taking her eyes away from IA. The clairvoyant ate happily.

"How do you know?" She said, surprised.

"I was a commander of a certain Neru Akita," she said, "She once told me that she had a friend named Haku Yowane, that had blank powers." Upon, mentioning her powers, Haku shrunk, as if in shame.

Her affinity was "blank". The power over "blank" was the power over "nothing" - the power of immateriality; it was virtually useless, because there was no spots for her to use her powers properly because, everywhere she went to, she was surrounded by matter! It was like that badly designed videogame in which the development team quit halfway and the producer decided to release and the result was a messy jumble that one could figure out what exactly was the point of it and only those really stubborn players could go until it finished and, when they finally reached there, they discovered that there was no ending because the producer didn't finish the game and the ending screen was an error message.

Such a power would be object of careful study by scientists, but, following the video game metaphor, they considered her power to be too mysterious and no one wanted to spend time studying that kind of power when there was much more promising research on other places. At least, they were considerate enough to give her their phone in case her powers did something - apparently, they had very limited applications in vacuum environments, but, other than that, practical uses were nonexistent.

"You don't need to feel like that. Your power is unique. It might take more to develop, but it must be useful for something."

Haku didn't reply; it costed for her to believe in her words, she couldn't imagine that she could understand her. "So," she asked, "How about you?"

"I had a commanding position back then, but after we discovered IA," she looked at her, "I was assigned as her guardian. Clairvoyance is a rare power, the higher ups think she has a power that can give them an edge in the battlefield. Let me tell you something," she lowered her voice, "They have plans to strike the heart of the Dark Continent, so they need all information that's available, and they think IA can give them what they need." Haku nodded. "Either way, I'm patient; sometimes IA acts like a woman of her age, others she acts like a child."

"IA, what do you see?" Haku asked.

"I see you, silly." She smiled, without blinking once. "I also see a fog in the corners; it's where the magic comes from. And I see a bug in your hair." At that moment, Ritsu hit her with a tray, finally killing the cockroach.

"Yes!" Ritsu said. "I'm the best." Haku held her hands to her head, now with the fluids of a dead cockroach on her silver hair, while people looked with disdain at him for being such a fool. Ruko obviously applauded.


	4. Game Start

"Tell me, what is this place?" Avanna said.

"It's the Training Grounds, ma'am." Miku replied, trying to sound graceful, but she sounded to Ritsu as graceful as a snake.

"Correct." The Training Grounds made for the biggest part of the area of Academy in area. Since the classes were smaller than the average school, they could invest in area to train their combat abilities; since magical girls' abilities were individual and thus they had a greater to cost to develop than a soldier. Avanna was accompanied by another teacher and that blonde veteran that Ritsu recognized from the first day.

"Now, understand that there is taxpayer's money being used to build those fancy installations..."

"Ma'am, this is just an ordinary court." Ruko said, raising her hand.

"Yes, we know, Ruko." She said, authoritatively raising her voice, making Ruko back down.

"Calm down, Avanna." A woman next to her said.

"Linako, you know that I hate to explain the obvious." Avanna said, glancing at her.

"Then, let me." Linako smiled. Avanna looked at her for a few moments and walked away, letting Linako speak.

"Ladies, welcome to the Training Grounds. This is where we gather you in order to test your affinity scores that we received in the moment of your enrollment."

"Who's she?" Ritsu elbowed Teto.

"I don't know. I think she gave classes in the first day."

"The reason why this is an open court is to symbolize the many paths that you can take - there is no right or wrong path, only the one you make." Linako said, and clapped her hands; from the middle of the field, a dummy target emerged from an opening. "Now, it's important to you for your demonstration. Professor Avanna will demonstrate her power."

Avanna stepped forward. She closed her eyes and spread her arms; her clothes glowed and her usual professor attire was replaced by a magical girl attire, complete with a battle dress and a cape; on her right hand there was a staff that glowed with a pulsating emerald orb on its tip.

"This is how a magical girl rolls." Avanna said; what impressed most the class was that she was actually smiling when she said that. She passed her hand at the orb and spread it, forming an arc; the staff was actually a bow that shot arrows of wind.

"Tch." Ritsu muttered, "There is no way that wind can do anything against that dummy." Avanna glanced at him, to which he placed his hand over his mouth. But she didn't seem to be angry at him, rather her smile grew up. She fired the wind arrow right at the middle, the chest region of the dummy; nothing happened - the students looked with an air of disappointment, but then the dummy broke into several pieces that flew on the middle of the air; then, with an horizontal slash of her bow-staff, she created a dash of air that turned into a series of air blades that cut off the remaining pieces. The dummy was now a pile of fine white mist.

"Ooohh…" Most of the class watched in awe as Avanna returned to her common outfit, and also to her stern demeanor.

"But this is just air!" Ritsu said, still incredulous. "We breath air!"

"If you paid attention to your biology classes, you'd learn that oxygen is a corrosive substance, in a sense it kills you every day." Avanna said, her smug smirk still on her face. "I just sped up the process...with magic."

"So, magic is limitless?" Ritsu crossed his arms.

"It depends." Linako said. "Affinities are what allows a person to use magic and they manifest individually, you just hone it until you can do feats like the one we demonstrated, and that requires practice, more practice and a good deal of imagination."

"Imagination, huh?" Miku said, then she stepped forward. "Instructors, allow me to demonstrate my power."

"Miku Hatsune," the blonde said, looking at her tablet, "Affinity: Synchronicity."

"I wish I could keep my affinity in secret." She said, somewhat miffed, crossing her arms.

"We cannot allow this, Miku," Avanna replied, "In Academy, we build teams that need to cooperate with each other in the battlefield, so secrets are counterproductive!" She even stomped the ground to make her point clear.

"As you wish, _professor _Avanna." She spat, crossing her arms.

Linako clapped her hands and a new dummy emerged from the ground. Miku smirked; she closed both hands into fists and lifted them at the height of her head; then, the same green fire she used to attack Ritsu manifested around her. Miku smirked and opened her palms, making them erupt with flames, that took off as if they were a geyser, a geyser of green flames that made an arc in the sky until hitting the dummy. The green flames enveloped the dummy and, in matter of seconds, they melted it; sparks of green fire also flew around the students - at first, they thought it was mere ash, but when they took a closer look, the "ash" was still burning: many of them held green sparks of fire on their hands.

"What a showoff!" Ritsu said out loud, then the sparks which were on his cheek started to burn, making him whimper.

"As you can see, I have total control of my flames." Miku announced. "They won't hurt my dear allies."

"Wow," Teto whistled, "That girl has such a level of power. I think she had tutorship."

"A tutorship?" Anri Rune, who had a cast on her arm now, "That Miku girl must be filthy rich to afford one veteran to train her!" Some girls could hire the services of a veteran magical girl in order to get a better chance at Academy; the government frowned upon this practice, because it gave an usually unjust advantage of some girls over others and it drained resources from the frontlines, i.e. the veteran magical girls had to take breaks from whatever missions they had - and it wasn't uncommon for a lot of those breaks to be not authorized; but if the family could afford a magical girl tutor, it could afford lawyers that could convince them to not be punished.

"Good work, Miku." Linako said, while clapping. Avanna, on the other hand, looked skeptically at her; just by her look, she knew that most students were talking about how Miku probably had a tutor.

Miku walked back, holding one hand on her hip, while Rin cheered on her; the way she walked reminded one of how models walked in the Fashion Week.

"Who do you think you are?" Ritsu muttered, while Miku passed through next to him.

"Better than you, for sure." Miku said, pimping up her nose while glancing at him, full of disdain.

"Wanna settle up this?" Ritsu raised a fist, stepping forward. Ruko quickly tried to held him back.

"Actually, I want to." She looked at Avanna and asked, "Professor Avanna, what is Ritsu's affinity?"

Avanna looked at her blonde assistant and she picked up his form. "Her affinity is 'Ripple'."

"Ripple, huh? Manipulation of waves and ripples," Miku said, with an air of superiority, making Ritsu seethe and making Ruko double her efforts in containing him. "Professor Avanna, I'd like to request a sparring match with Ritsu."

"What?" Linako said, stepping up to Miku, "It's your first day! You and neither Ritsu know the full extent of your power! You are not allowed to follow this!"

"Let them, Linako." Avanna said, placing a hand in front of her.

"But-"

"We'll be watching over them." Then, she grabbed her by the arm and whispered on her ear, "If it were for me, I'd simply drop them in a demon-infested area and give the diploma to whoever came back." Linako gulped, while Avanna had a knowing smirk on her face.

Avanna created a gust of wind that cleaned the arena, for Ritsu and Miku to duke it off. Miku and Ritsu walked to the center of the arena, she didn't let go of her smirk, while Ritsu continued glaring at her.

Rin tossed her a training staff, made of modified styrofoam, while Teto walked to Ritsu to give him the staff.

"Be careful, Ritsu," Teto said, looking at him in the eyes, "That girl is the kind that would do anything to win a fight." Ritsu looked hard at her, but picked the staff nonetheless.

"I will win this without even using my affinity." Miku said, twirling the staff in the air. "I'll even let you start."

Ritsu didn't reply. In his anger, he grunted and lunged at her with the staff. Miku just moved her staff to the right to block effortlessly his strike. This only made Ritsu even more nervous as he started to strike at her with all his might, but she just blocked.

"You fight like a troglodyte, you know?" Miku taunted, while Ritsu still tried to hit her.

"Miku is right," Kokone chimed in, "Ritsu does suck at hitting on people, she's like a thug from the streets."

While the other girls commented, Teto crossed her arms and Ruko placed a hand over her mouth in preoccupation; they used to fight with styrofoam swords and Ritsu always won with an usual series of quick attacks, but Miku was on another level.

"You can attack at this high speed because you use your powers," Miku said, while blocking again the flurry of attacks, "But you didn't develop it, what a shame. Expected from a lowly born that goes to this academy for short-sighted reasons." And with that, she broke Ritsu's attack and struck him in the crotch.

"You little..." He said, taken back. Miku raised an eyebrow and struck again; in order to protect himself, Ritsu tossed his staff at her.

"What?" Miku said, picking the staff Ritsu threw in the air.

"I'll teach you to not using this freaking hairstyle!" Ritsu said, taking advantage of her small confusion, a grabbed one of the enormous teal-haired tail of her. However, he screamed in the moment his hand squeezed her hair, as an electric current passed through his body.

"Do you think I'm such a fool that I wouldn't realize that this is a weak spot?" While Ritsu backed away, massaging his hand, Miku hit him with her electrically charged tails, "I have placed small generators holding up my hair," she said, as she hit him again; she had already dropped the staffs and had her arms crossed while the tails increased its attacks, "I'm fully ready for anything, unlike you."

Ruko and Teto thought of interfering, but the public was too engrossed on the fight; they looked at the professors: Avanna had a proud smile on her face, for some reason, while Linako looked nervous.

"Give up!" She said, as the bangs continued hitting Ritsu with their electric-charged strikes.

"You...are starting to...piss me off!" Ritsu grunted while he grabbed Miku's tails again; she smirked as the electric current passed through his body, and Ritsu cried, but he didn't give up; his scowl deepened as he grabbed with more force her hair. This made Miku gasp; with a mighty scream, he tossed her around the arena.

Ritsu started to pant and kneeled to the ground - those shocks took a toll on his body; his face had some lumps due to all hits it endured and his uniform had a few rips, but it seemed that age for two years instead of two days.

"How, did you-" Miku said, while getting up, and putting herself in an offensive stance; green fire started to build up on her hands.

"That's enough!" Linako walked to the middle of the arena. "The exercise is over!"

Miku looked at her, then at Ritsu, and then walked away without saying a thing. Ruko, on the other hand, helped Ritsu to sit down in a bench.

"Sparring matches are great ways to test your abilities," Avanna said, "But, we must continue." And she started to talk and call other girls, but Ritsu and his friends paid little attention.

"Hey," the blonde veteran said, holding the tablet with the forms, in a moment where Avanna was distracted.

"It's you." Ritsu muttered.

"You have spunk, girl. What's your name?"

"Ritsu."

"Ritsu, huh?" She glanced at Avanna and said, "Well, my name is Lily. Perhaps, I might have misjudged you, but who knows..." and she walked away from him.

"Know her?" Teto asked.

"I had a bad run-in with her yesterday." He said, placing a hand over his head, where a headache started to form. The day was practically finished for him.

* * *

><p>Cubi paced around in his darkly lit room, a smile upon his beaming face. Today was a pleasing day for him, nonetheless. His prospects at the magical girl academy had finally demonstrated their powers. This was all going according to his very loose plan to destroy Strategos's reputation. After all, if they were to find out that a male had been secretly been attending a magical girl school instead of their snooty academy, it would be a blow to both reputations, especially Strategos.<p>

He never really was one to like Strategos because of their prideful program, and the way they loved to boast their achievements to Cubi. As one of the main investors to Academy, he found them to be tedious for the competition. Magical girls developed much faster than the males, after all, and surely his little 'niece' Ritsu and Ruko would prove so. He wasn't focused really on Strategos's prideful downfall, however. He just wanted to see if he could mess around with as much things as possible – he usually blamed on his affinity: Uncertainty, to which he shared with his buddy Hio; perhaps this was the reason they were so close.

Sitting down in his oversized chair that would be better off being called a throne, he took down his hood and shoved his shades onto the collar of his shirt. His hair on the right side stuck up in the air similar to Hio's, but what made it different from them being safe from being labeled as twins was the very long bit that skimmed his shoulder. Smoothing down the already short and combed left side, he turned on his television. Cubi hated watching the news because there was nothing but tragedies and sob stories – things that gave audience and unite the people against the demons, when in truth, an advanced demon attack wasn't seen for ten years. According to his research, there was a country called Japan at one point before the Heaven Fire that broadcasted things like adorable cats and cherry blossom reports. Why couldn't this blasted area have something nice like that?

"In today's reports, a family of four has been found dead. Instead of the usual demon menace, it has been discovered through an autopsy that this is the work of magical energy. Traces of negative energy had been found around the chest and spinal cord. Students at Strategos and Academy are heavily inspected and authorities will begin private investigations upon this matter." Now Cubi was intrigued. He rose a bit in his seat, his grey eyes begging the TV to proceed. "In other related issues…"

"No! No! Bring it back!" He began flipping through the channels on his remote, hoping for a rewind button. This was astounding to him. There had been issues like this in the past, but there were always some form of injury recorded. But this, however, was new. And this frightened him. Flipping open the battery compartment, he pushed the secret switch located there which opened up a door behind his TV. Standing up, Cubi entered his secret planning room and closed it swiftly behind him. Don't want anyone getting in, now, did he?

The room was nothing but a desk and several bookshelves filled to the brim with ancient scriptures of events before the Heavenly Fire. The majority of this collection was looted from the government's burning of documents and anything that had to do with history before that event. While possessing documents from the First Civilization wasn't illegal, there were some documents that the government would rather not fall in civilian hands – and he amassed a modest amount of those ones in his collection. Cubi was sure it was for a better control over the ignorance instead of the intelligence. But that didn't stop him from reading these texts over and over again for a better understanding of the world. But, he had to admit that non-illegal documents were enough to understand the world, such as these things they used to have labeled as "memes"; they were entertaining, and he treasured such a useless culture dearly.

But now was not the time for memes. Now was a time of a new discovery to be researched. Granted since his library was outdated at best, there wasn't much to be gathered because memes spread through the internet, and the internet died at one point in Heaven Fire. He wasn't even sure why he came in here, in fact. Maybe it was the fact that this place brought him a sense of peace. Sitting down in his office chair, he spun around and jerked the chair into smacking himself into a wall.

"Shit!" He cried, rubbing his head. That was a decent wake up call from his tomfoolery, he supposed. Turning to his desk, he began sifting through all sorts of documents about governmental cases that he managed to gather, dropping them halfheartedly into a desk drawer; his burn drawer, to be exact. A stained corner of a hardback book caught his eye, and with curiosity he pulled it out. When he saw the cover, a small smile spread across his face.

"Ah, The Complete Guide For the PS3, huh? This brings back good memories." It was a compendium on an old entertainment system. He learned of the amazing world of Ni No Kuni; the wrath of Asura, in Asura's Wrath, that demolished the heavens fueled by thousands of years of injustice; the races in Grid, though he preferred the ones in an even older entertainment system called Nintendo 64; even those blasted pseudo-games of David Cage that he had a low respect for them, but they were still relics of an older age; and the Metal Gear series, both Snake and Raiden were remarkable in their contrast, one was a stealth, infiltration-based game that you had to think outside the box and the other was action-oriented and over-the-top, ironically or not just like some magical girls.

His mind flashed him back to several years ago when he first got this book. This was when he discovered this adoptive brother had taken in a small boy named Ritsu, and Cubi was ecstatic to meet his new nephew. In fact, he skipped over a board meeting in Academy to drive there. He remembered the first time he walked through those old screen doors to see little Ruko trying to get Ritsu to play dolls with him. In fact, the mere thought of Ritsu's stern and displeased face made him want to laugh.

When Ruko saw her Uncle, she was instantly delighted. "Uncle Cubi!" She called, nearly tripping to run to him. Cubi had been wearing his motorcycle helmet, so he removed it once she tackled a hug to his stomach, crashing onto the floor loudly. Ritsu was more surprised at his ridiculous hairstyle than he was with the helmet.

"Yes, it's Uncle Cubsy." He laughed, giving Ruko a sloppy kiss onto her forehead. Cubi glanced over to Ritsu. "And who's this young man?"

"He's my brother, Ritsu, though he won't do anything with me. He just glares at me and huffs." Ruko muttered. Cubi nodded with a stupid smile.

"Eh, that's what us guys do. We pretend that we don't care when we really do." Cubi walked over to the small child carefully. He heard about what Ritsu had been through, so he wanted to be more lax around him. "So, you're the little meme- erm, Ritsu I've been hearing about."

There was no response given to him; just a glare. Cubi huffed childishly and flopped onto the couch.

"See? I told you he hated us!" Ruko slurred.

"Quit talking about me like I'm not even fucking here!" He snapped. He threw down the doll that Ruko shoved into his hands onto the floor and turned away. Ruko was shocked, then looked like she was about to cry. Cubi was going to call out Ritsu for his anger, but it was better to stop Ruko's waterworks before they started. She was a giant crybaby back in the day. There was a story Hio used to go on about how Ruko wouldn't sleep because she cried about all day and all night. Cubi said that was because of Hio's wimpy genes, which earned Cubi a kick in the crotch.

"Ruko, sweetie, he didn't mean it!" Cubi quickly took her onto his lap. To be completely honest, Cubi was afraid of children. Babies couldn't fight back with you, adults were reasonable yet stupid, and he and the elderly had something against each other because of age gaps (and his hair), but teenagers and children were just frightening. He wasn't sure how, but the youth scared him sometimes. This made him question why the hell he funded a private academy for teenaged magical girls.

"Y-Yes he did! He said that h-he hated me!" She began bawling. Cubi began internally cursing and wiped her little tears off of her cheeks. Ritsu still faced the wall. Well, perhaps Cubi could calm the both of them down with a story. The shopping bag that he had carried in with his PS3 compendium manual would probably be a good prop. He pulled out the old guide, to which Ruko looked at with curiosity. "W-What's that?"

"It's a guide to… magical girl's schools." Good thing she couldn't read. "Hey, since your Uncle works at the magical girl school, how about he tell you about magical girls?" This was a good way to please them. Ruko was enchanted with magical girls' their grace and beauty in battle made her want to soon fight in the army. Well, it was unfortunate that she was soon going to have to with the pension on her from Macne's faults, so Cubi decided to give her a good view on the magical girl workforce for now.

"Yes!" She hiccuped. Cubi noted that Ritsu seemed tense from the mention of magical girls.

"Well, there was an incident called the Heaven Fire where demons decided to come onto Earth and party, so a bunch of girls with awesome powers decided to go and defeat these monsters for our sake, and now magical girls are our saviors, besides the male magical girls." Cubi began explaining in a simplified manner. "The demons do a lot of bad things, and there's little ways to stop them without magic from a strong person. One day you can become a magical girl and defeat these monsters for the sake of other people!"

"Why are you talking about this so simply?! Those monsters took away my mother and father from me!" Ritsu had unwittingly been scooting closer to Cubi his entire time. "They kill people without any thought! They need to be exterminated for the sake of humanity's survival, and I'm going to be the one to do that!"

Cubi, right then and there, then witnessed the first spark of Ritsu's potential. A flash of a strong aura hit Cubi, and he was stunned for a few minutes, like a ripple. It wasn't as strong as the Elites, but above average at best. A few days ago, he investigated three other girls with this same amount of power for the sake of entry exams for the future entry of Academy that were all on equal level with Ritsu,and their exams all listed them into the future army. Perhaps Ritsu… no. It was a ridiculous idea.

"Well, how are you going to do that without becoming a magical girl?" Cubi teased. Ruko, whom buried her face into Cubi's shirt from Ritsu's scream, turned to face her adoptive brother. Ritsu stood there, not sure what to do, but shut his opened mouth firmly.

"I don't have to wear a dress to kill monsters! I'll become a magical girl all by myself! Just watch!" Ritsu pointed at Cubi. Cubi put Ruko down on the couch besides him and huffed.

"How can you become a magical girl when you can't even defend yourself… from this?" Then Cubi sprung off the couch and grabbed Ritsu and fell to the ground and began tickling his sides heavily. The once angry child now began laughing heavily and tried to break free from his Uncle's grasp. His only escape? A kick to the crotch.

And that memory inspired Cubi to come back every Tuesday to visit the children to convince them to soon become magical girls. Cubi always brought some form of story or book about the world before the Heaven Fire to inspire them. And each time, Cubi observed how Ritsu began opening up to his sister and himself, to which very much made Cubi happy. The videogame compendium did come in handy, because since Ritsu and Ruko couldn't read that the time, Cubi made the manual into a "guide" on magical girls. Every game turned into a metaphor for everything a magical girl must face in her path. He particularly liked the chapter on Metal Gear Rising: even the nanomachines became a part of the magical girl world.

"Nanomachines?" Ritsu asked, looking at the page.

"Nanomachines, son." Cubi smirked from behind his signature shades. "You see, nanomachines are used in magical girl's weapons sometimes. That one legendary hero, Promesse, uses nanomachines in her bow and arrow. And they're so powerful that they can wipe out a demon easily!"

"Wow! Do you think we'll able to use weapons?" Ruko asked, her arms wrapped around her long knees. Cubi found Ruko's rapidly growing height to be funny compared to the short height of Ritsu.

"Hmm… not sure. But if you do, I suggest getting a snow shovel because those things hurt. I should know." Cubi flashed back to Hio beating him with said weapon after Cubi bought them both "Brothers in the Memehood" shirts. The kids don't need to know about how much money he blew on those.

Cubi placed his hands on his cheeks and sighed in delight; those were good times, better than all that paper Academy sent him every week. Forgoing those memeories [it's an accidental typo, but I needed to show to you], he looked at the new heap of paper on his table: warnings, bills, intimations to go to the court, death threats, nothing out of the normal, but for an envelope with no identification but the symbol of Academy.

"Hm, they're really going through with this..." He slipped off his shades and leaned back in his chair, nothing but a frown and grey eyes used to simulate his feelings.

* * *

><p><em>Codex Sapien: The Abridged Version – Approved by the Municipal Council of Liberitas<em>

**First Civilization:** The First Civilization was the title given to the human civilization prior the Heaven Fire incident; archaeologists estimate that the civilization evolved through a great period of time, some say ten thousand years, others fifteen, and its technological development grew up exponentially to a point that all knowledge could be stored into a virtual network of data, called the Internet. Records from the period become rarer as they approach the Heaven Fire incident, indicating that humanity relied more and more on the Internet in order to store data; the generalized electromagnetic pulse destroyed electronics and the Internet, leaving the civilization in disarray.

**Heaven Fire incident:** At one point the First Civilization reached its peak; a golden age of humanity, in which Earth had become closer to a paradise, in which technology helped to solve most societal problems. However, as the saying says, men grew proud. Records close to the Heaven Fire incident are scarce but it is believed that something fell down from the heavens. The wrath of God? A meteor shower? Nobody knows, but this incident destroyed the First Civilization, letting in its wake demons roam the Earth, destroying whatever remained of the First Civilization for the next decades. In order to survive, humanity banded together to the corners of the planet, honing their skills and fighting back; in that time, magic appeared both in men and women, though women had more affinity with it, allowing humanity to guarantee their place in this brave new world. Citing the name of old countries turned into a taboo (to the point of censoring them from any retrieved First Civilization media), though their customs still linger in our current civilization and are mostly tolerated.

* * *

><p><strong>A. N.:<strong> In order to help, we decided to include a Codex for in-universe happenings and lore.


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